Not if its creator, Dick Wolf, can help it. Mr. Wolf said after Monday’s NBC upfront presentation that he is out seeking “other offers” for his 20-year-old, New York-based franchise, which NBC cancelled this week.

Mr. Wolf has long aimed to see his signature police and legal procedural surpass the classic western “Gunsmoke” as television’s longest-running primetime drama. NBC’s decision left the two shows in a tie for that record.

Mr. Wolf was known to be negotiating as hard as he could to try to convince NBC to extend the show for another year. Monday he said he was not giving up but did not specify where he is hoping to place the series.

But Mr. Wolf did say that another potential plan – one that would have wrapped up the flagship “Law & Order” with a two-hour movie on NBC, is on hold until he exhausts every other opportunity to keep the show going as a weekly series.